Major Resources
on the Case

This
thesis, "A Case Study of Southern Justice: The Emmett Till Case"
by Hugh Whitaker, is available for free download at Florida State University.
Click on the title page above or here
to go to the download page. The thesis is a large (52 Mb) PDF file.

This
work by a graduate student in Florida in the early 1960s
is the foundational study of the Emmett Till case. Written only eight
years after the sensational murder and trial, Whitaker had the benefit
of interviewing many of the participants who, unfortunately for present
day researchers, are now dead. Their perspective on the case, preserved
within this thesis is one reason it has traditionally been quoted more
than any other major source. Although the original thesis was never
published, the most relevant portions dealing directly with the Till
case were finally published as "A Case Study in Southern Justice: The
Murder and Trial of Emmett Till" in Rhetoric & Public Affairs,
8:2 (Summer 2005): 189-224.

The
work is about more than just the Emmett Till case, however, although
its purpose is to help us see southern justice through the events surrounding
this particular tragedy. The first section, “The Setting,”
is divided into four chapters and provides a context for the Till slaying.
Chapter one deals with the issue of race and sex, and the place of segregation
in Mississippi. Chapter two is a study of Tallahatchie County, where
Till was killed and the trial held. Whitaker includes several important
tables that illuminate the reader to the social and economic disparity
between the races. For example, he lists the annual incomes of Tallahatchie
County families for 1949 and that disparity is clear: of the 6,915 families
earning under $500 annually, 1,980 were white, while 4,935 were black.
Another shows that 195 white families earned an income between 6,000
and 10,000 annually, while only 10 black families enjoyed a similar
prosperity. He also provides statistics on home ownership verses those
who then rented, and even a table showing how many homes had toilets
that flush as opposed to those that did not. Again, the contrast between
the races is striking.

Another
chapter deals with Mississippi since Reconstruction, and the success
of legislation that disenfranchised blacks. The rise of Jim Crow laws
and the unfortunate consequences of the loss of suffrage is laid out
clearly. Quoting another writer, Whitaker notes that “the vote
determined ‘whether the streets in a given part of town are paved
and whether the town spends money for lighting those streets.’”
In Tallahatchie County, Whitaker adds, due to disenfranchisement, “Streets
in Negro sections of town are not only not paved, they are often not
even graveled. They are generally narrow and are seldom graded by the
elected supervisor for their beat. There are few or no sidewalks. Street
lighting is poor. Sewers and water mains are often not put into their
homes” (47).

Whitaker
also provides lynching statistics as compiled and evaluated by the Tuskegee
Institute. Between 1882 and 1945, 475 lynchings took place. Of that
number, 433 of the victims were black. After the late 1920s, however,
lynchings decreased and there were none from January 1952 and May 1954,
just prior to the Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education
of Topeka, Kansas, and a year before Till was killed. In fact, he points
out some areas where race relations had improved and some degree of
social mixing seemed to quietly occur.

With
that background, Whitaker then examines the Till case in part two of
his study, and he provides the reader with a wealth of information.
One benefit that he had was access to the official court transcript
of the murder trial, and he quotes from it often. Whitaker
received his copy of the trial transcript from one of the defense
attorneys, but it eventually was destroyed in a basement flood. For
decades, it was the only known copy to exist until the FBI located one
during their 2004-2006 investigation into the case.

Whitaker
chronicles the events surrounding the kidnapping and murder, using William
Bradford Huie’s book, Wolf Whistle, and even interviewing Huie himself
(Huie had paid the acquitted killers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant $3,500
for their story soon after the trial). Trial participants that Whitaker
interviewed include several members of the jury, two of the three prosecuting
attorneys, and a few of the defense attorneys. Interesting admissions
come from the interviews. “Why did the jurors vote for acquittal?”
he asks. “The answer may surprise many of the people involved
in the case, including the prosecutors and the defense attorneys. Of
the jurors polled, not a single one doubted that Milam and Bryant, or
the Negroes supposedly with them, had killed Emmett Till. Only one juror
seriously doubted that the body was Till’s” (155). Whitaker
even interviewed Sheriff H. C. Strider supplied Whitaker with many of
his own materials on the case (mainly the 150 letters he received
before and during the trial), and from him comes a story—one
that Whitaker was able to corroborate. Apparently, someone made an assassination
attempt upon Strider a few years after the Emmett Till murder, in retaliation
for his (Strider’s) conduct during the trial. We even see--possibly--a
different side to Strider. “The last thing I wanted to do was
to defend those peckerwoods [Milam and Bryant],” prosecutor Hamilton
Caldwell told Whitaker, quoting Strider. “but I just had no choice
about it.” Although one source close to Strider said the sheriff
sided with Milam and Bryant from the beginning, Caldwell was adamant
that Strider’s work for the defense was one of “changing
horses in mid-stream” (127).

"A Case
Study in Southern Justice" is a crucial contribution in understanding
1950s Mississippi justice. It was undertaken while key figures in the
Emmett Till case were alive, but long enough after the events where
participants could discuss them more objectively. Later studies have
been able to better place the Till case within the civil rights movement,
something that Whitaker could not yet foresee fully. However, his study
certainly is an important source in the overall quest for understanding.
Truly it is the first word on the case, one that will greatly aid the
last word—if there ever is such a thing.